IOC considers switch for key 2024 vote

Los Angeles and Paris are the only two cities remaining in the race for the 2024 Games following the withdrawal last month of Budapest after a petition against the bid by residents of the Hungarian capital (AFP Photo/Mark RALSTON)

The IOC will decide quickly whether to switch a key meeting to choose the 2024 Games hosts away from Peru’s stricken capital, a source close to the Olympic leadership told AFP on Tuesday.

An International Olympic Committee envoy arrived in Lima on Monday for talks on whether the city can hold the congress on September 13, which is to decide between Los Angeles and Paris for the 2024 Games.

Spanish Olympic Committee chief Alejandro Blanco is to draw up a report for IOC president Thomas Bach, who is at the SportAccord convention in Aarhus, Denmark.

“In light of his conclusions, a decision will be taken and this is imminent. The IOC cannot wait too long,” said the source.

IOC officials have highlighted problems between Peru’s national Olympic committee and the government, organisational holdups as well as fallout from the recent floods. Peru’s Olympic committee chief Jose Quinones was banned from holding any public post for five years in 2016 because of irregularities in accounts he controlled.

If the IOC cannot hold its congress in Lima, it may decide to hold the event at its headquarters in Lausanne. But as Switzerland is a neighbour of France, this could set off a dispute over the impartiality of the vote for 2024.